Inniswood Metro Gardens, Westerville OH
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1996-07-26 Zwick’s locomotive by Community Archives
Via Flickr:
Locomotive 2534 on display at Zwick’s Park in Belleville, Ontario.
Photograph taken by Chris Malette for the Intelligencer newspaper.
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19 and 20: Stockard Coffee Park and Mable Park
I’d sworn off visiting parks behind schools (even though I support them philosophically) because they remind me of how thoroughly I loathed elementary school. However, I’d gone on an errand that took me behind Beyer High School and past an entirely unexpected shabby little elementary school.
ALTWhen I was in second grade, we were required to participate in a contest to name that elementary school, which is in the distance of the photo above. The school was then named after the white settler who used to own the land where the school was built, so I doubt our input had much impact.
It’s in an interesting little neighborhood, though, with lower-middle-class 1960s/70s tract homes to two sides, a trailer park on another, and a blob of early 2000s tract homes for Bay Area commuters on the remaining side. “Does it have a park?” I asked myself.
It does. It has the right trees to smell delightful.
ALTIt’s otherwise pretty standard for a neighborhood park. I just like the vibe.
It looks like the city did significant work on it circa 2002, since there’s a memorial wall with tiles designed by the local children.
ALTThat feature, with character that speaks directly to people using the park and caring about it, is part of its charm. While I’m trying to avoid being prescriptive about park design, I do wish every neighborhood park had some quirky memorial to the history and meaning of the neighborhood. (There are higher priorities, like safety and accessibility. The latter will come up as some parks get finished later this summer.)
Since I don’t drive down Mable often – it’s basically one mile of residential street that used to mark the northern end of civilization before the city grew out to Claratina – I proceeded east and discovered a fully park-developed “city hole.”
ALTA city hole is an area designed to become a pond during rainy season, partly as drainage, partly as wetland mitigation. (All that grass swoops down into a pit more dramatically than my phone captured.) I remember the subdivisions out here having land reserved for drainage, but I’ve never paid attention to how they were ultimately developed.
The answer is grass, with big drainage pipes below street level. Mable Park has no amenities other than a city trash can and a nice entrance.
ALTThat officially fulfills my obligation to try out new parks, though there are still plenty that I want a look at. I’ve definitely discovered a park I like for nature walks (Tuolumne River), a park for socializing walks (Virginia Trail), and a park for sitting still (Moran Estates).
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17: Tuolumne River Regional Park
ALTI’ve found my park for nature walks.
This is the Tuolumne River Regional Park, toward the eastern (airport) end. The full park is about seven miles long, spanning the southern edge of town. I did not walk 14 miles roundtrip this morning! I walked about a mile through the enchanted quiet and giant trees.
I knew as soon as I walked down toward the entrance that this one was a winner.
ALTThis is downhill from both the airport (which hasn’t had commercial flights in almost 20 years, alas) and an old working-class neighborhood.
ALTThere are educational signs about the local wildlife in both English and Spanish. This one tells about Steelhead Trout. I also passed signs for the San Joaquin Kit Fox and the North American River Otter.
The playground is surprisingly old-school, so likely not long for this world.
ALTThis was a lovely walk. The trees are old enough to be mysterious, while the layout is open enough that nobody odd is going to step out of shrubs right into your path (this is a real issue in local parks; most of the people in the shrubs are harmless). It’s quiet without being bourgeois. It has open water, which adds to the soothing romance of it all.
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18: Pierre Park
ALTI’d sworn off pocket parks in affluent neighborhoods, because they never have amenities, but Pierre Park jumped out at me while I was driving along Encina to see if the Native Plants Garden was in bloom yet.
It’s another patch of grass with some nice trees, but the lure was the mystery at the east end of the park.
There’s an entire vineyard. The vineyard is private property, extensively fenced, and accessed only through a security gate. No source is particularly candid or consistent about what’s beyond the gate, and nobody comments on why there’s agricultural land in a part of town that’s been built up as residential for over 50 years.
Here’s the view, peering through the wrought iron fence at the end of a little side street.
ALT
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Queen Elizabeth’s Park
In Vancouver, this park is good for observing nature, light excersie and cardio, fresh air, greenspace, and it doubles as a conservatory and includes some golf courses, good for families with elders and very young children
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This is Lions Valley park In Oakville
Its a massive natural park, lots of greenspace, lots of space to exercise and breathe the healthy air, good for all ages because it has shade, park equipment and safe walking trails.
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Winter Wild Delight - UK Robin London by Adam Swaine
Via Flickr:
Today we have the UK’s favourite bird, the European Robin (Erithacus rubecula).The Robin is a distinctive and spunky bird. Both males and females set up territories which they guard vigorously.
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It’s amazing how so many people walk the trails and passes trash without caring to pick something up or at least making a plan of action for the next visit. This is on a main trail and it’s so heartbreaking to see. Not all trails are trashed but I’ve noticed it’s really bad off trail and main trails. If you live near park, woods or forest trails and see trash but don’t have a bag, picking up a bottle may not seem like much but it’s a small step towards a cleaner park. You might even find trash bags littered which is sad, but can be used to store the trash you find. If everyone who visits these places did this at least once or twice a month, the environment would be a lot more cleaner and better off. Happy trailing ❤️
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Sunset On A Frozen Pond
“It has long, however, been my opinion, and I have never shrunk from its expression … that the germ of dissolution of our federal government is in the constitution of the federal judiciary; … working like gravity by night and by day, gaining a little today and a little tomorrow, and advancing its noiseless step like a thief, over the field of jurisdiction, until all shall be usurped.” – Thomas…
